May 19, 2021

NASA Delays New Frontiers Science Mission Competition (Source: Space News)
NASA is delaying the next competition for a New Frontiers planetary science mission by two years. NASA recently informed scientists that a draft announcement of opportunity for the fifth New Frontiers mission, which was scheduled for release in October, will be delayed to October 2023. NASA said budget pressures from other missions already in development, along with "COVID-related challenges," caused the delay. New Frontiers is a line of medium-class planetary science missions, with proposals limited to a set of destinations largely determined by the planetary science decadal survey. NASA said it will redefine the list of targets for the New Frontiers competition based on the outcome of the next planetary science decadal, due to be released next spring. (5/19)

Private Sector Seeks Role in NASA Earth Science (Source: Space News)
The private sector wants to play a larger role in NASA's Earth science program. At a House space subcommittee hearing Tuesday, representatives of companies and organizations called on NASA to make consideration of commercial capabilities "a forethought, rather than an afterthought" when planning future missions. That includes early development of the Landsat Next program to follow Landsat 9, as well as greater use of commercial smallsat data purchases. (5/19)

China's Mars Rover Returns First Images (Source: BBC)
China's Zhurong Mars rover has returned its first images. Those images, released Wednesday, show the rover on its lander platform on the Martian surface. The rover landed late Friday, but Chinese officials had provided no updates about the status of the rover until the release of the images. The rover is undergoing checkouts and has yet to roll off the lander and onto the Martian terrain. (5/19)

Atlas Delivers SBIRS GEO 5 Satellite to Orbit From Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Space News)
An Atlas 5 successfully launched a missile warning satellite and two cubesats Tuesday. The rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 1:37 p.m. Eastern and released its primary payload, the SBIRS GEO 5 satellite, into geosynchronous transfer orbit 43 minutes later. The satellite is the fifth of the Space Based Infrared System network of satellites and hosted payloads in geosynchronous Earth orbit and highly elliptical orbit designed to detect ballistic missile launches anywhere on the globe. Also on the launch were two 12U cubesats known as Technology Demonstration Orbiters TDO-3 and TDO-4, which carried multiple U.S. government payloads for the U.S. Air Force Academy. (5/19)

China Launches Weather and Disaster Management Satellite (Source: Xinhua)
China launched an ocean science satellite Wednesday. A Long March 4B rocket carrying the Haiyang-2D satellite lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 12:03 a.m. Eastern. The satellite will join two others, Haiyang-2B and 2C, to provide all-weather around-the-clock monitoring of the oceans for research and disaster management. (5/19)

Flying Dinosaur Bones to Space! (Source: Club for the Future)
As part of its 'Dream Big Alabama' initiative, Club for the Future recently teamed up with Huntsville Science Festival to fly dinosaur bones to space onboard the most recent mission of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. The dinosaur bones are from a dromaeosaurid in the raptor family, likely a Dromaeosaurus. The bird-like, feathered carnivorous dinosaurs were about seven feet long, stood just over two feet high at the hips, and had ‘killer claws’ on each foot that sliced into its prey when deployed.

The ~200 flown fragments were collected from private land in the Hell Creek formation of South Dakota. The bones will be used as tokens of appreciation for partners and supporters of the Huntsville Science Festival, which was founded by Innovation for Education Foundation, a Huntsville based non-profit, and Dream Big Alabama, a state-wide initiative to give every student direct access to space thanks to Club for the Future and Blue Origin’s rockets. (5/18)

There Might be Remnants of an Ancient Planet Buried Inside Earth (Source: Astronomy)
Researchers are fairly certain that we gained our favorite satellite, the Moon, after a planet, Theia, collided with the proto-Earth 4.5 billion years ago. What’s not certain are the details surrounding Theia’s fate. Was it a hit-and-run, or did the mantles of the two planets merge? Qian Yuan, Earth scientist at Arizona State University, and his colleagues recently suggested a new line of evidence to support the latter hypothesis, suggesting that Theia not only merged with Earth, but we might know right where the remnants of its mantle reside in Earth.

Original models estimated that the impactor, Theia, was about the size of Mars (half the size of Earth today). Though, some recent studies suggest it might’ve been more like four times the size of Mars, or roughly the size of the proto-Earth. Either way, most researchers agree that the core — the densest part — of Theia merged with the core of Earth incredibly quickly after the impact, in a matter of hours. Today, Earth’s mantle isn’t completely uniform. About 8 percent of it is a little different from the rest, and forms two big piles near the core-mantle boundary.

These two piles are called Large Low-Shear-Velocity Provinces (LLSVPs), so named because seismic waves called shear waves move about 1 or 2 percent slower when passing through them. And they’re huge: One is beneath the African continent, and the other under the Pacific Ocean. Some researchers think the LLSVPs slow down the shear waves because they’re a higher temperature than the rest of the mantle. Others, like Yuan and his colleagues, think they’re denser and compositionally different in addition to being hotter. Yuan says he was sitting in a planetary geochemistry class when the idea struck that the LLSVPs might be related to Theia. (4/14)

ENPULSION Thruster Modules Added to SmallSat Catalog (Source: Orbital Transports)
The SmallSat Catalog from Orbital Transports expanded its line of small satellite propulsion products with additions from ENPULSION. The inclusion of ENPULSION NANO and MICRO product families broadens the range of capabilities available through the digital catalog of products and services for the smallsat industry.

ENPULSION’s modular Field Emission Electric Propulsion (FEEP) technology enables custom propulsion solutions designed for your mission needs. The highly versatile NANO series of modules can be clustered, supporting various configurations for attitude control, orbit life extension, formation flying and constellation control, and highly efficient deorbiting. Building on the heritage of NANO thrusters of which more than 60 are currently in space, the ENPULSION MICRO R3 is a scaled version of the technology appropriate for small and medium size spacecrafts. (5/18)

BAE Wins $325M GPS Contract (Source: Space News)
BAE Systems won a $325 million contract to produce GPS equipment for the U.S. and allied militaries. The company will supply receiver modules that allow the military to use a jam-resistant GPS signal known as M-code. The modules will be used to build military-grade GPS receivers for precision-guided munitions and handheld devices. The company won a $247 million Space Force contract in February for the development of a more advanced module with a new M-code upgrade. (5/19)

Starburst Plans Investment Fund for Startups (Source: Space News)
The business accelerator Starburst Aerospace is in talks to create a $50 million investment fund for space startups. The company has acquired equity in dozens of startups in exchange for consulting services and connecting them with governments and established companies. Several of those companies are in the process of going public through mergers with SPACs, allowing Starburst to consider raising a fund to make more direct investments. Starburst came close to securing a $200 million fund for similar purposes five years ago, before anchor investors pulled out in the final stages. (5/19)

York Space Systems Plans Mega Manufacturing for Satellites (Source: Space News)
York Space Systems said Tuesday it will build a "mega manufacturing facility" to quadruple the number of satellites it can produce. The new facility, adjacent to an existing one in Denver, will allow York to produce as many as 80 satellites simultaneously, compared with 20 satellites at a time now. The new factory is designed to handle surges in demand, particularly for customers establishing and operating satellite constellations. (5/19)

Aevum Launcher Could Also Provide Point-to-Point Cargo Transport (Source: Space News)
Air-launch startup Aevum says the drone it is building as a launch platform will be used for other applications as well. The company received a patent this month for an "adaptive autonomous aircraft system with modular payload systems," which would allow the company's large drone in development, Ravn X, to be converted from a space launcher to a cargo delivery aircraft and vice versa. Aevum foresees Ravn X being used primarily for cargo delivery, serving as a launch platform only 8-10 times a year. Ravn X will fly for the first time later this year. Aevum has not yet set a target date for its first orbital space launch. (5/19)

Starfish Space Plans Satellite Servicing Test (Source: GeekWire)
Software designed to support satellite servicing will be tested on an upcoming mission. Starfish Space will demonstrate its Cephalopod software on Orbit Fab's Tanker-001 spacecraft, to be launched on a SpaceX rideshare mission in June. The software won't be used for docking with other satellites, but instead show how it can effectively control thrusters by Benchmark Space Systems on the spacecraft. Starfish will later use the software on a small space tug, called Otter, in development. (5/19)

Astra Announces Multi-Launch Contract with Planet Labs (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Astra will work with Planet Labs on a multi-launch mission in 2022. This is a milestone for both of our companies, and creates an important inflection point as we begin delivering launch services to our customers that are creating a healthier and more connected planet. Planet's mission has huge implications across the global economy, such as powering efficient agriculture that can feed more people more affordably and helping the forestry industry fine-tune sustainable practices. This is the kind of real change in people’s lives that companies like Planet are enabling and supporting every day. (5/19)